The present invention relates generally to lawn maintenance equipment and relates more particularly to a system for side discharge type lawn mowers for collecting, transporting and dumping grass clippings and lawn debris picked up by the mower and discharged through the mower discharge duct.
A variety of collection devices have been proposed for lawn mowers to catch the grass clippings and other materials discharged by the mower blades during operation. For the most part, such collection devices have involved small bags or containers requiring frequent emptying and have been suited primarily for small mowers.
The mowing of large grass areas such as parks, athletic fields, golf course fairways and large estates, presents major problems in collecting, transporting and disposing of a large volume of materials, and the grass clippings have thus generally been allowed to remain on the grass surface. Although large sized systems have been developed for collecting clippings and other lawn debris, such systems are generally expensive since they usually employ a blower to produce the suction required to collect and convey the clippings and lawn debris to a remote collection chamber or trailer. Such systems are typically complicated, expensive to purchase and maintain, and furthermore require considerable operator time and effort to empty bags or containers.